Birthday Party!

I really wanted to have a birthday party for the kids this year. Normally I would just throw a little party at our home but our current apartment is just too small and not comfortable for entertaining. So I thought, “Where can I throw a birthday party?” I almost gave up on the idea of a party because I just couldn’t find a place within our budget. I couldn’t spend 3000-4000 yen per person at a restaurant. I just wanted someplace where the kids can feel at home. I searched online for rental spaces but everything was mostly for weddings. A bbq is always fun but I didn’t have time to find any parks close enough to our place but also accessible to family and friends, who all live so far apart from each other. There were lots of websites but 90% were in Japanese and I just couldn’t sort through all the information. Finally a week before their birthday weekend and when I gave up on the whole party idea, we found a place which turned out to be just right – a kaikan 会館、which is a public assembly hall found in each city. I think you must be a resident or know a resident to use a city’s rental hall. The kaikan we used is just a 2-story building with 2 rooms. The room we were able to reserve is a large bright tatami room which accommodates 20 people. Had we had more time to prepare more people would’ve been on our guest list, but we were just so late in planning. The room had a closet with long folding tables and cushions for you to set up as you choose, so we left lots of open space for the kids to run around and play. I was a bit disorganized this year and I wasn’t able to decorate and do the whole shabang but the important thing is that family and friends were able to come and celebrate two very special birthdays with us. And now that I know about these places I’d definitely use a kaikan again for other future parties.